The letter, sent Tuesday, asks the IRS to clarify whether section 165(h) of the tax code — which allows taxpayers to deduct “casualty losses” suffered as a result of an unexpected event such as a fire, storm or theft — could apply Chinese drywall victims.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/

The pressure on the White House to appoint a new head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission rose again on Tuesday when Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson called for the ousting of acting chairman and commissioner Nancy Nord.

Nelson, citing “a serious problem” with an agency and a leadership he says is doing too little to help Florida residents affected by “tainted” Chinese drywall, wrote to President Barack Obama to ask that Nord be forced to resign for “neglect of duty.”

Nord’s Chief of Staff Joe Martyak said the senator’s letter is “simply off the mark.”

Calls to replace Nord have been mounting in recent weeks for reasons unrelated to drywall. Nord herself asked Obama to name a new agency chair to deal with mounting complaints about a consumer-product safety law that has left retailers stuck with more than $1 billion of goods they can’t sell. (For more, read this story in The Wall Street Journal.)

In his letter to the president dated April 7, Nelson said he voiced his concerns to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in a recent telephone conversation.

“The agency is doing too little, too late to help residents of Florida and other states who are reporting serious health and safety problems associated with living in homes built with tainted drywall imported from China,” Nelson wrote. “The CPSC has the power to ban future imports or issue a recall on defective or hazardous products, but the commission hasn’t taken any action.”

The CPSC in February said it had begun an investigation of complaints about Chinese drywall products, and Nelson introduced a bill in March seeking a recall and temporary ban of certain drywall. (For more, read this story in The Wall Street Journal.)

In his letter, Nelson noted the CPSC has been under Nord’s leadership for three years, and said
she “has come under bipartisan criticism for, among other things, being too cozy with manufacturers.” He also criticized the agency for taking “far too long” to protect consumers two years ago from Chinese-made toys with high levels of lead.

“Mr. President, I’m asking you to call on Ms. Nord to resign,” he wrote, suggesting that Nord be removed for “neglect of duty” under the Consumer Product Safety Act.

“Any action such as recalls or bans legally takes place only after we know the dimensions of a problem, not before. The agency was already investigating this problem before Sen. Nelson even wrote to us about it, and we have been working with EPA and CDC on this investigation before Sen. Nelson proposed this coordination in his bill,” Martyak responded.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/04/08/senator-calls-for-ousting-of-consumer-product-safety-commissioner/